Existing methods of delivering data from Earth-orbiting satellites to a ground stations fall into two general categories: sending radio transmissions to a fixed ground site via a relay satellite in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) or sending radio transmissions directly to a ground site when the Earth-orbiting satellite passes over the ground site. Because of the long distances involved, and the paucity of GEO satellites, the geosynchronous relay approach is restricted in both availability and data rate. Likewise, because of the short connection time and restricted burst rates, the direct transmission is also restricted in its capability. In addition, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations concerning RF spectrum allocation constrain the bandwidth available for satellite transmissions. As a consequence, data transfer to ground networks from Earth-orbiting satellites presents a significant bottleneck in the data collection capabilities of present-day Earth-orbiting satellite systems. This bottleneck is getting worse now that satellite missions are generating more data than existing RF systems can handle.